SUPER Early playoff team predictions:

[belcherboy]

Just because some people inside the universities are praying for ESPNa Claus to shower them with money and pull them out of the Pit of Financial Woe they’ve dug for themselves doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. ESPN has been shedding viewers and on air talent, and now they’re going to pay a gazillion bucks to televise another round of playoff games, so we can watch the 1 seed curbstomp the 8? Maybe they will, but I doubt it will happen before the end of the current contract.

I've read/heard many financial people giving their estimates on what it would generate. This is about a year old now, but this is what I've heard other estimate what an expanded playoff would likely generate:

Report: Expanding the Playoff could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue

Should college football consider this?

www.saturdaydownsouth.com

ESPN's biggest revenue creator is live sports. The other content they provide can be found elsewhere, and thus why they are struggling so much. COVID killed them when there was no live sports. I imagine if they can create more highly sought live content (games that mean something), they will be all in to pay for it.

 

[Tritonboat71]

I may be in the minority, but I’d like to see the Group of 5 have their own playoff system.

I would have watched a Cincinnati, BYU, Coastal Carolina, Liberty, San Jose State, Tulsa, or Louisiana in any combination of those schools in a 4 team playoff.

 

[belcherboy]

The argument prior to the BCS was “the same teams keep winning”. The argument during the BCS was “the same teams keep winning.” The argument during the 4-team CFP is “the same teams keep winning.”

Guess what will happen if we go to 8 teams...

No doubt this will happen! The above video has Colin talking about that exact thing. This expansion would be 100% a financial thing now, even if it is marketed as creating more parity.

 

[belcherboy]

I may be in the minority, but I’d like to see the Group of 5 have their own playoff system.

I would have watched a Cincinnati, BYU, Coastal Carolina, Liberty, San Jose State, Tulsa, or Louisiana in any combination of those schools in a 4 team playoff.

Colin talks about his solution in the above clip, and I really liked it. He hints at that type of system.

 

[cclxxxvdicere]

I've read/heard many financial people giving their estimates on what it would generate. This is about a year old now, but this is what I've heard other estimate what an expanded playoff would likely generate:

Report: Expanding the Playoff could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue

Should college football consider this?

www.saturdaydownsouth.com

ESPN's biggest revenue creator is live sports. The other content they provide can be found elsewhere, and thus why they are struggling so much. COVID killed them when there was no live sports. I imagine if they can create more highly sought live content (games that mean something), they will be all in to pay for it.

Great, so the solution to all the money problems of the schools and ESPN is on the backs of the players, we just keep on increasing the number of games that they have to play. Brilliant.

 

[BamaDude]

This was what I heard recently from sports guys said they are hearing the same things from their guys inside the universities (this is just one of a few). It just makes sense that they make the moves now especially as these universities are losing such great amounts of revenue, and knowing that COVID could change up and create another season like this in the near future.

Cowherd said he was told this "by three different people." Probably other sports hacks like himself. He also said after Auburn beat Alabama on a fluke play in Gus Malzahn's first season that Alabama was through dominating the SEC & intimated that Nick Saban wouldn't be winning any more national championships.

Cow-nerd has a habit of being wrong.

 

[BamaDude]

The argument prior to the BCS was “the same teams keep winning”. The argument during the BCS was “the same teams keep winning.” The argument during the 4-team CFP is “the same teams keep winning.”

Guess what will happen if we go to 8 teams...

Three or four new teams get boat-raced in the first & second rounds.

 

[belcherboy]

Cowherd said he was told this "by three different people." Probably other sports hacks like himself. He also said after Auburn beat Alabama on a fluke play in Gus Malzahn's first season that Alabama was through dominating the SEC & intimated that Nick Saban wouldn't be winning any more national championships.

Cow-nerd has a habit of being wrong.

I guess we’ll see. I listen to him and his sources are often pretty good. He does get it wrong at times.

 

[BamaDude]

I guess we’ll see. I listen to him and his sources are often pretty good. He does get it wrong at times.

If the parties involved started negotiating this Spring or Summer, the earliest they might be able to set up an expansion would be for the 2022-23 season. But I don't think that's going to happen. Most of the time the top 2 or 3 teams are pretty obvious. The biggest challenge is deciding who the #4 team is going to be. Rarely are there more than 5 or 6 teams in the discussion for the playoffs at the end of the season, so even if there is an expansion, it might only be to six teams.

Teams 1 & 2 would get first-round byes while #6 played at #3 & #5 played at #4. That, to me, seems more reasonable than expanding to 8 teams & having auto-bids for conference champions.

 

[Diego Roll Tide]

Three or four new teams get boat-raced in the first & second rounds.

The other complaint is the dearth of close semifinal games. Why would adding 4 teams change that? If anything, it’s likely the quarterfinal games involving 1 and 2 would be even more lopsided than the 1/4 and 2/3 games.

I get the argument for adding teams, but I don’t see it as solving “problems” other than certain conferences being left out.

 

[Bedlam131]

The argument prior to the BCS was “the same teams keep winning”. The argument during the BCS was “the same teams keep winning.” The argument during the 4-team CFP is “the same teams keep winning.”

Guess what will happen if we go to 8 teams...

I happen to agree in the the same teams will keep winning in the near future but, the exposure from a larger playoff will help recruiting for more schools which in the long run may expand that pool of winning teams.

 

[Neilcar]

So let's slow down and have a over look ... if they go to 12 teams playoff ... why just go ahead and call it the nfl jr. football league.because that is what it will become.

What you may gain financially with more playoff games, you may lose more during the regular season. With so many teams in the playoff why even watch meaningless warm up games in Sept. or early Oct. ... the real season doesn't start until late Oct. and Nov.

For major and not so major football Programs the home date brings in Millions of $$$ (ticket, food, gear) and the home team doesn't have to share that with anyone... Everyone wants the fans to show up for the regular season home dates ... The Colleges have compounded their error by selling 1st tier, 2nd tier, and even 3rd tier TV rights where I can sit at home and watch almost any game I want (no crowds, no lines, no expensive food, cold beer steps away, air conditioning, and no line to the bathrooms). My wife quit going to the game a few years ago and has watched every game at home ... and after this year .. I am thinking of doing the same thing.

Just like NFL and basketball ... the real season where you have to really "get-it-done" ... starts in the playoffs.

 

[Wamu]

It didn't hurt Ohio State this year. They didn't even need 7 wins.

Not sure if you're serious or joking around. If you're being serious there's no way a 7 win team under normal circumstances gets into the CFB. That would mean that 7 win team would have 5 or 6 losses.

Now if you're saying the 2021 season will be similar to the 2020 season with some teams playing fewer games I could see that happening. But damn man, I'm sure hoping things will be back to normal (or very close) by the time the '21 season kicks off.

To change the topic for a second I hope UofM hoops loses by 29 on Feb. 21. Why 29 you might ask? Ohio State beat that team from ann arbor by 29 on Nov. 30, 2019.

 

[Duckboy33]

Alabama
Oklahoma
Clemson
Georgia

 

[BamaDude]

Alabama
Oklahoma
Clemson
Georgia

I'm not sure Alabama makes it back to the playoffs next season; but they will be back in 2022 & probably champs again in 2023.

 

[Duckboy33]

I'm not sure Alabama makes it back to the playoffs next season; but they will be back in 2022 & probably champs again in 2023.

So I’m guessing you are predicting Georgia to win the SEC next year?

 

[BamaDude]

So I’m guessing you are predicting Georgia to win the SEC next year?

It could be wide open next year. Georgia should be the best in the East, but whether or not they win the SEC championship game is anybody's guess. They've only done it once in recent years (2017).

For only the second time since 2010 (the last time being 2019), Alabama is poised to take a step back, and could end up with another two-loss season. LSU & Texas A&M should provide some tough competition, and Ole Miss could play the part of spoiler. Florida should still be strong in the East, but still a step or two below the top teams in the league. Missouri could battle for 2nd place in the East.

 

[Diego Roll Tide]

It could be wide open next year. Georgia should be the best in the East, but whether or not they win the SEC championship game is anybody's guess. They've only done it once in recent years (2017).

For only the second time since 2010 (the last time being 2019), Alabama is poised to take a step back, and could end up with another two-loss season. LSU & Texas A&M should provide some tough competition, and Ole Miss could play the part of spoiler. Florida should still be strong in the East, but still a step or two below the top teams in the league. Missouri could battle for 2nd place in the East.

Not sure I see the step back other than Young needing to prove himself. The defense should be better, and the incoming class has several instant contributors.

Frankly, I see 12-0 as likelier than 10-2 sans major injuries.

 

[Duckboy33]

Not sure I see the step back other than Young needing to prove himself. The defense should be better, and the incoming class has several instant contributors.

Frankly, I see 12-0 as likelier than 10-2 sans major injuries.

I agree with this

 

[Gator91]

Of course , 12 won't work without byes for 4 teams. 8 works best, 5 conference winners, 2 Group 5 or independents, 1 at large. A conference that has a 2 loss team win the conference just has to hope the loser is the the at large team chosen.
I point this out because of unfair nature of the P5 basketball tournaments, when an upset occurs with a below .500 team winning and knocking out a smaller school with as much as 23 and 6 record from the big dance.

I'm looking at the same sets of examples but coming to the exact opposite conclusions! Yes, a P5 BB team with a losing record knocks out a small school with a 23-6 record show just how BAD those smaller schools are. They shouldn't be in there IF they can't beat P5 teams. For a similar reasoning, I don't want ANY auto bids in CFP. What happens when a 7-5 team upsets a12-0 team in the conference championship. That now 8-5 team has NO business being in a playoff. Also, with autobids, there would be no reason to schedule any team OOC better than a high school team because it can only hurt a team. Without decent OOC games then why not start your own conference and fill it with the worst teams available. That way you get an autobid. There are too few OOC games of any consequences as it is.

Consider this, take the top 3 teams from each of the P5 conferences and calculate the number of possible regular season OOC games between them (90). That means that over a 20 year span there would be 1800 possible games. Over the past 20 seasons there have been just 45 such games. The vast majority of the games are #1 vs #6-10 type games. Some of the biggest offenders are the "big named" schools. That needs to change.